A few days of luxury-ish

Trip Start Sep 10, 2008
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Trip End Sep 03, 2009


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Flag of Japan  , Chugoku,
Saturday, December 20, 2008

Getting off the tourist trail means two things in Japan. 1) Its going to be expensive. 2) Its going to be worth it. With that in mind I headed up to Matsue, a place where no backpackers really go, or anyone else for that matter and as  such, there are no hostels. I didn't see any other westerners for the three days I was there. As there were no hostels, I was forced to stay in the next step up, which in this case, was a business hotel. Business hotels are a bit of a Japanese phenomenon, set up for business men commuting to meetings or staying to work over the weekend. They are cheaper than normal hotels, but still comfortable. It was however, twice the price of a hostel, and hostels in Japan are about 5 times the price of hostels everywhere else I've been (and nowhere near as nice either!). Ouch!, but it was sooooo worth it. It was a huge luxury to have a room and bathroom to myself. Needless to say, I didn't want to leave, and I certainly didn't want to go back to sleeping in dorm rooms after that! There's nothing like travelling and living out of dorm rooms to make you appreciate having your own space Every nights a sunset night
Every nights a sunset night
 .

Dragging myself away from my bedroom, which was hard, believe me, I made it to the Adachi Museum of Art. Although I'm from an arts background, I didn't actually go to see the museum, so much as the gardens, voted as Japan's best for 6 years running. They were stunning, even though it was raining (The first day it had rained since I'd arrived!), although I was slightly disappointed that you couldn't actually walk round. This turned out to be a good thing when I stopped gawking at the grounds and turned my attention to the hoards of tourists crowding round. Some things are better looked at than touched! After using up my camera battery, I had a quick look round the museum, which was impressive in its own right. Full of beautiful traditional Japanese art, mainly on scrolls, and also a gallery dedicated to a children's illustrator, which was lovely to see.

I spent the rest of my day back in the main centre of Matsue. It was bonus to find an original castle that had never been rebuilt, something of a rarity here, as most of the castles have been reconstructed in the 1950's after the war. The interior was still intact, with incredibly steep staircases, that were very difficult to walk up, and even harder to walk down, especially if you have big feet like me! I also came across a preserved Samurai house, full of traditional artifacts, not far from the castle. The whole area was very traditional and very peaceful to walk around. For some reason, just above the Samurai museum, there was a little building at the back, housing a set of two big drums, used in festivals, good to see, but very random! And so, admiring colourful umbrella clad tour groups and a lovely sunset over the sea, I headed back to the hotel to watch lots of Japanese television programs that I couldn't understand and prepare myself for the traditional breakfast the next morning of miso soup and rice. I actually found it quite nice to eat in the morning, it was a lot lighter than I thought and really filled me up!
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